If we rewound from this day and went back two days to when the normal everyday trudge for detective Mary Tysoe started with her trip to the district precinct via the morgue to pick up her work sheet for that day.
She didn't mind this so much because it was better than being the corporate conveyance lawyer she used to be, telling people the same old rubbish tirelessly plodding through an office full of clients without thought or personality. Until she joined the police she used to wake up at night with the image of her signing off corporate billable hours for impersonal work carried out for customers who feel they should be getting a better service. Now she gives a personal service to the recently killed, gets paid far less and has a great deal of job satisfaction.
She sighed deeply when she saw the face she knew so well staring up at her from the morticians slab, her boss from her old job. His corporate wings had been torn off his body and used to smother him in a very gruesome way. This was more for effect than the cause of death seventy four stab wounds and the wooden splinters from a spear carved from the wood of an apple tree. The only apple tree in this district was the fortress headquarters of supposed thug and supposed villain Michael Teeah, or because he has threatened death to anyone who doesn't call him Mi T.
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Unfortunately for Tysoe this is something she has to do as party of her job meaning she would have to fly to the tree where the Mi T Corporation is situated and go through the process for the paperwork. she walked a little while long, sort of prolonging the inevitable and when she can to the edge of the branch and looked down to the grass so far below her took in a large breathe of air, filling her lung whilst she unfolded her wings out wide, fluttered them a little to get out any creasing and she jumped.
The distance between the trees meant Tysoe has to fly for about ten minutes to get to the apple tree in the centre of the district, fortunately today is a dry day so the flight over will be fairly easy. She also knew from bitter experience that as soon as she gets within a certain range she will be watched by the guards and even closer still she will get an armed escort to one of the landing platforms. She made the flight casually knowing what is going to happen but when she was expecting the armed guards there was nothing and when she landed Tysoe was met on the platform by Michael Teeah's personal assistant.
"Detective Tysoe, that was quick. I haven't even contacted the department yet. Come in and see, we need to make a report." the artificially altered assistant greeted her. Detective Tysoe looked back into the skies around the corporate headquarters to see them all clear, no guards anywhere to be seen, she had never seen it like this before. Usually the skies directly around this tree were patrolled by faeries with spears; anyone comes too close without permission gets escorted into one of the security rooms. Try and force your way down to land on the platform then you will be expected to be made dead or worse.
Detective Tysoe made a mental note about how she had been addressed, especially after she heard those words; we need to make a report. Taking her time to follow the assistant, noting that how incredibly well spoken she was, but how low her IQ should be. Knowing a job well, doesn't mean a person is able to relate that knowledge outside of the working environment, in fact a certain type of person will not be able to do it at all and this is exactly the sort of person Mi T liked to hire. It gives him overall control, he will pay to have her surgically altered, pay to have her wings clipped and pay for the elocution ladies to take her under their wings until she can sit behind the desk and animatedly say exactly what is written on the script. They don't need a mind to think and definitely don't require the ability to remember anything outside of her working environment.
"Please Detective come as quickly as you can." The assistant said once again, Tysoe replied, "I could probably get to wherever you are trying to take me too quicker than you can possible take me." Tysoe eyed up the skin tight clothing, it looked almost painted on and she followed close behind until Tysoe heard, "This!"
The assistant looked like she was going to cry as she pointed down to the floor where her boss and the scourge of the district were lying in a very large pool of blood. Tysoe only assumed this was Michael Teeah, in reality all she could see was a mound of blood, skin, hair and clothing. She knelt down and said to no one in particular, "Can you send for the coroner and also can you get a message to my precinct to let them know we have a bloody mass I am investigating. Can you get me a set of those disposable rubber gloves that you use to touch everything with and I will need a rather strong coffee, when you think you have got it strong enough, double that strength! Go Go Go" Tysoe gestured in a dismissive way still not taking her gaze off the mound and as the assistant walked off Tysoe looked up and saw as she walked away she was using her hands and fingers to try and remember what she was asked to do. Tyson never expected to see that coffee. She said, more to herself than to the bolognaise like mess on the floor in front of her, "I wonder whose toes you trod on this time Michael."
"Your coffee Detective Tysoe." A voice said, but it wasn't the same voice as the physically enhanced assistance that walked away. Tysoe stood up and swung around slowly so she didn't startle whoever was standing behind her. Silhouetted in the doorway, the expanse of daylight flooding in behind him was a man wearing a coarse knit robe tied around the middle with a small piece of vine. He walked forward and said, "Just as you like it, but a little better, I guarantee it." He said.
He walked towards her, she didn't move as she felt there was no reason that she could think of to be afraid. He handed her the cup, an ornately carved wooden cup and nodded her head, "Thank you" after a first sniff and a big swig of her coffee, "What."
"Like I said, a little better." He said.
"Who are you?" Tysoe replied and continued to drink. He walked over to one of the comfortable chairs and gestured to her to take a seat. She walked over and sat where he had indicated and continued to enjoy her drink. "Michael Teeah's assistant will be back in a few minutes and I don't think she will like a stranger in the same office where her employer has just been killed." Tysoe said and continued, "Did you tell me who you are?"
"No I didn't Mary, that lady will be away for a while, you gave her enough to remember in that tiny little mind of hers, not her fault though I suppose. " he paused for thought and continued, "I am unable to tell you my name and what makes you think I am strange?"
"I didn't say you were strange. I said stranger as in someone who she doesn't know." Tysoe said.
"She knows me, not really knowing she knows me. Much like you, you know me, you don't know it yet but you do know me all the same." he said with the most calming way of talking and he watched as Tysoe enjoyed her coffee.
“Michael Teeah’s death was not murder it could probably be put down to nature’s causes.” The man said.
She looked over to him but could still only see him in silhouette; she couldn’t make out any discernable features, “How would you know this?”
Dodging the question he replied, “This land is going to need a new principle, someone who has shown that they can be honest and provide a structure that will not be influenced. All the residents of each tree in this area need to know their best interests have the full attention of the principle.” He stopped talking and looked over to her as if he was awaiting something to crank into place in her head but all he saw was her finishing off her coffee and looking for somewhere to put the cup without getting up out of the chair. He leant forward and took it from her and continued, “I am talking about you Mary.”
“Me” she exclaimed, “Why would you think I could do this?”
“You worked, very successfully in a job you hated, this job allowed you certain of life’s luxuries without you having to worry about your home, your food and fun times.”
Tysoe interrupted, “There wasn’t any time left for the fun times.”
“But you gave up that job without any prompting because you didn’t like it. You were not forced out and you had nothing else to go on to. You then signed up to be a detective, a great deal less coming to you. You even down sized you living arrangements so you could afford a life outside your meagre earnings, but you still did it and you are good at it. You made a sacrifice to your life because you were not able to have a life outside of your work. Now you serve the people and those people respect you more than some of your colleagues because you serve them not The Mi T Corporation. You can serve them again and make this land a place faeries from lands far away would come to spend their pleasure time as a family.”
“No, no, no way, are you asking me to sit in an office like this and run Breezy Hill?” she said.
“It is not my place to ask you to do this but who else is there to do it?” the man said.
“This land has one hundred and fifty thousand plus inhabitants there must be at least one that fit the bill.” She said.
The man responded, “You are right. I believe Michael Teeah was the holder of something that didn’t belong to him” detective Tysoe raised her eyebrows in a manner to suggest, there is probably more than one thing he had that didn’t belong to him, her thoughts faded as the man walked over to a stone wall, “An unusual place to put a stone built wall don’t you think, we are after all in a tree, surely the wooden walls all around are strong enough.” He made a simple movement of his hand the all the mud that bound each stone together dried up to dust and he learnt forward and pulled a single stone out of the middle and all the other stones fell into a long pile on the floor at his feet.
Detective Tysoe watched each stone fall and all of them fell around the man, not one of the tumbling stones connected with him or even brushed his clothing as they fell. She looked to where the wall used to be and saw a shelf cut into the wall, “Could you hand that to me please? I am not as nimble as I used to be.” She got up from the comfort of the seat she was sat in and climbed over the mound of rubble and picked up a stone that was smooth all over, had a bulbous end and another end that came to a sharp point.
She looked at the stone and then back to the shelf and couldn’t see how the stone was supported but she remembered just a few seconds earlier taking the stone in her hand and it was point down. Initially if had felt very cold to her touch and it warmed in her fingers, or was it warming her fingers, she couldn’t decide. Stepping back off the rubble she held the stone out to the man and for the first time she saw his face, his handsome features had a darkened glow, not one that she felt to be a threat to her or anyone but maybe one that was trying to hide something else.
He said, “You are the holder of that stone, use it well and take it to where it belongs.”
She walked over to the mess in the floor where the remains of Michael Teeah’s body was still lying and said what about this, she turned her head to the man and pointed at the mound. Fire erupted from her finger and hit the mass which in turn burst into flames. She quickly looked back and watched in start to burn, she then heard a splintering crash and turned. Blazing sunlight came in from a new hole in the exterior wall, dust and small bits of wood rushed around in the air and the man stepped into silhouette once more, unravelled his butterfly shaped wings to full stretch and jumped out into the air around Breezy Hill.
She flung her hands forward and shouted after him, “wait” but it was too late but when her arms reached their full lock the ceiling, a wall and the floor burst into flames. She outwardly said, “Oooops” and ran through the fires, whose flames felt cold to her as she went through them and she too jumped out of the hole.